HSA Updates
HSA Develops Educational Toolkit to Help Retailers Avoid Selling Tobacco Products to Underage Youth
Audiences
Consumer
Healthcare professional
Industry member
Product type
Others
9 September 2009
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The Health Sciences Authority (HSA), with the support of Health Promotion Board, has produced a Tobacco Retailer Educational Toolkit to assist retailers to better understand the tobacco sales laws and to adopt best practices to avoid selling tobacco products to persons under 18 years of age.
Tobacco Retailer Educational Toolkit
2 From July this year, HSA started distributing the Tobacco Retailer Educational Toolkit comprising a training video and a reference card to retailers. These materials provide the retailers and their employees with useful information on their legal obligations regarding tobacco sales and tips in handling underage youth who try various means to buy tobacco products from their outlet.
3 The training video shows enactments of the common scenarios retailers encounter on attempts by the underage youth to buy tobacco products, and it also offers tips on how they can respond to the youth. The video, produced in four languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil), aims to provide a useful guide to retailers to help them better comply with the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act.
4 In addition, a reference card (see Annex A in pdf), is provided as an additional reminder on key information from the video, such as how to ascertain the age of buyers and penalties of selling tobacco products to underage youth.
5 Says Mr Norman Chong, Deputy Director, HSA's Tobacco Regulation Branch, “Through our regular visits and interactions with tobacco retailers, we have received feedback on the challenges they face when the underage attempt to buy tobacco products. With the video, we hope to raise awareness on the common scenarios and also equip the retailers with the know-how to avoid selling tobacco products to the underage. Feedback from retailers so far, indicates that they find the Toolkit helpful.”
6 "Tobacco retailers who are vigilant in not selling any form of tobacco products to youth play an important role in sustaining Singapore's tobacco control efforts. We are pleased to know that the tobacco retailers find the educational toolkit useful in equipping them with skills and strategies to refuse tobacco sales to youth," says Ms V Prema, Deputy Director, Youth Health Programme Development 2, Youth Health Division, Health Promotion Board.
7 As a partner of the National Smoking Control Programme**, HSA takes a serious view of smoking by underage persons, and consequently, the illegal sale of tobacco products to the underage. Apart from the ongoing enforcement of the law to discourage the illegal sale of tobacco products to the underage, HSA is committed to educate and remind retailers on the seriousness of such offences and the know-how to turn down unlawful attempts by the underage for tobacco products.
[Note: **The National Smoking Control Programme (NSCP), spearheaded by the Health Promotion Board, was formed in 1986 to prevent smoking initiation among the young, promote smoking cessation among smokers and protect non-smokers from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. NSCP comprises a multi-pronged strategy that includes taxation, public education, smoking cessation services, partnerships and legislation.]
8 Retailers who need clarification or more copies of the Tobacco Retailer Educational Toolkit can contact HSA's Tobacco Regulation Branch at 66842031.
HEALTH SCIENCES AUTHORITY
SINGAPORE
11 SEPTEMBER 2009
Note: The contact number for HSA's Tobacco Regulation Branch in the HSA Update above was revised on 6 June 2013.